hopeful - Stories

Oliver's marriage ends and his job disappears on the same Tuesday. So he flies to France, straps on a pack, and starts walking. Somewhere in the French Alps he meets Julien, a man carrying his own weight, and the two of them figure out—slowly, carefully—whether they've got room for each other.

Two grown men, a lot of hills, and the slow business of letting someone in.

Sometimes life isn't what you expect. Finding the love of your life and keeping that love isn't always easy. Some roads are straight and smooth; others, not so much. This is the story about two boys navigating the road from boyhood to adulthood with all the potholes and speed bumps along the way.

Set in April 1848, the story opens on a fog‑bound morning in San Francisco’s Wentworth Hall, where Julian Wentworth wakes before dawn in a house ruled by discipline and silence. The estate is grand but cold, shaped by the rigid expectations of his powerful father. Julian moves through his morning with practiced composure, though a quiet tension lingers beneath everything — a sense that the household is shifting in ways he cannot yet name.

Emory had his whole life planned out. Go to college, become successful, marry Danielle. Then one night, he met a boy who took his virginity, and now Emory is about to turn his life upside down and follow the boy across the country. It's time for this boy to meet other boys.

When a blizzard traps Arthur and the mall's chaotic security guard Flip in a dark, freezing apartment, they expect a night of awkward small talk. What they don't expect is the electric tension that's been building across the concourse for months—or the discovery that Flip's not as straight as he thought. Two days of forced proximity, instant coffee, and improvised fires spark something neither can ignore. But when the snow stops, Flip has a choice: walk away, or risk everything for the man who made him feel seen for the first time.

The year is 1891, and the Wild West is dying. Alvarez is a smartly dressed, smooth-talking bandito riding north with a stolen fortune, a lethal six-shooter, and one very spoiled cat. He travels alone, until he finds a half-frozen boy bleeding in the cold mud. Devon is an exile, violently banished from his Mennonite community and hunted by the very boys who broke him. As they ride together, Devon's cold logic clashes with Alvarez's flashy chaos. Slowly, the pinstriped killer and the battered runaway must learn to trust each other before the past catches up to them both.

Colt's temper got him expelled. Now he's starting over in a small town where he meets Noah, a quiet, bookish boy next door hiding a terrible secret. As their friendship deepens into first love, Colt discovers that Noah's stepfather has been abusing him for years. Desperate to protect the boy he loves, Colt agrees to a dangerous plan. But the guilt of his choices and the friends he's made over the summer may be the only things that can save them both.

A rural farm boy has a chance encounter with handsome tattooed roughneck that may change the trajectory of his life.

Sky is a young actor, son of two of Hollywood's finest and most respected television stars, and an out gay man with a few small roles to start his career. When he auditions for a small indie film, he learns his co-star would be the hottest up-and-coming male star of the year: Brant Kimber. Sky is auditioning for the role of Brant's gay lover, but Brant is quite heterosexual. Sky can barely imagine filming sex scenes with this masculine sex-symbol but he is also very excited about the opportunity. The role would be the best one he has had so far and extremely exciting. Will Sky land The Role of a Lifetime? What will happen if he does?

Sam has cajoled and coaxed Max, and with the big day finally coming, he's footing the bill for a suit at a high-end menswear boutique. What neither counted on was the sleek salesman with the talented mouth offering one a very private fitting—while the other waits outside the dressing room door.